Set in a fairy-tale version of 19th century Saint Petersburg, Chris Bower's one-act concerns the strange courtship of two low-level employees of the czar. Bower wanders far afield of his source, Dostoyevsky's early short story "White Nights," adding a metaphysical whimsy entirely his own. But the characters' tender, searching loneliness seems exactly right, and the Bruised Orange Theater Company production is unique and affecting. Part of the Rhinoceros Theater Festival. --Zac Thompson

Price: $15 or "pay what you can"